Human-to-human collaborative session request queue processing

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to queued requests to establish human-to-human collaborative sessions and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for managing queued requests to establish human-to-human collaborative sessions. In one embodiment, a human-to-human collaborative data processing system can be provided which can include a messenger configured for coupling to other messengers. The system further can include a queue of incoming session requests to establish respective human-to-human collaborative sessions with requestors associated with the other messengers. Finally, the system can include queue management logic enabled to order the session requests in the queue according to queue rules coupled to the queue management logic.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/179,950, filed Jul. 12, 2005, now allowed, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of collaborative computing and more particularly to the field of human-to-human collaborative session requests queueing and dequeuing.

Description of the Related Art

Real time communications systems provide a substantial enhancement over more traditional, asynchronous communications systems. Electronic mail delivery systems, the prototypical asynchronous communications systems, in its time represented a giant leap forward in respect to global interpersonal communications. Prior to electronic mail, individuals primarily communicated via telephone, facsimile and post. With electronic mail, however, individuals expect near instant delivery of text, and even imagery, audio and video, without incurring the delay typical of the postal system, or the expense associated with telephony and fax technologies.

Despite the ubiquity of electronic mail, asynchronous communications systems lack several elements common in the realm of real time communications systems. In particular, the seemingly instant delivery of a message cannot be experienced in the world of electronic mail. In a real-time society, the minor latencies associated with electronic mail often cannot be suitable for the task at hand where a real-time conversation will be required in addressing a problem or performing a collaborative task. More importantly, often the feel and nature of a “conversation” as it is known to human beings only can be approximated through real time communications where the participants to a conversation feel the spontaneity of an exchange of ideas, much as is the case in a live, face-to-face conversation.

The recent rapid development of the Internet has led to advanced modes of synchronous, real-time collaboration able to fulfill the real-time communicative requirements of the modern computing participant. Using the Internet as a backbone, individuals worldwide can converge in real-time in cyberspace to share ideas, documents and images in a manner not previously possible through conventional telephony and video conferencing. To facilitate collaboration over the Internet, a substantial collection of technologies and protocols have been assembled to effectively deliver audio, video and data over the single data communications medium of the Internet. These technologies include several human-to-human collaborative environments such as instant messaging and persistent chat rooms.

Generally a human-to-human collaborative session can be initiated by soliciting the participation of one or more designated participants. When a designated participant accepts a request to engage in the session, the session will be established. On many occasions, however, the designated participant will not be able to accept the requested session, either because the participant is not available or because the participant chooses expressly to not participate in the requested session at the time of the request. In that circumstance, the requested session can be queued for processing when the designated recipient becomes available.

When a designated participant becomes available to participate in a human-to-human collaborative session, the participant can review the queue of pending sessions. Within the queue, some pending sessions will be considered by the participant to be of a higher priority than other sessions. Higher priority sessions will be established first while lower priority sessions will be established later. In any event, in many cases, the queue can be shallow enough that the designated participant can determine which pending sessions are more important than others. Where the queue grows to include a multiplicity of pending sessions, however, it can be much more difficult for the designated participant to prioritize the establishment of human-to-human collaborative sessions for the pending requests.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to queued requests to establish human-to-human collaborative sessions and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for managing queued requests to establish human-to-human collaborative sessions. In one embodiment, a human-to-human collaborative data processing system can be provided which can include a messenger configured for coupling to other messengers. The system further can include a queue of incoming session requests to establish respective human-to-human collaborative sessions with requestors associated with the other messengers. Finally, the system can include queue management logic enabled to order the session requests in the queue according to queue rules coupled to the queue management logic.

In another embodiment, a session request queue management method can be provided. The method can include receiving session requests to establish human-to-human collaborative sessions with respective requestors, queuing the session requests in a queue in a human-to-human collaborative system, prioritizing the session requests in the queue according to queue rules for prioritizing session requests, and presenting the prioritized session requests in a user interface. The prioritizing step can include ordering each of the session requests in a position according to queue rules selected from the group consisting of time based rules, buddy list based rules, relative hierarchy based rules, dynamic interest profile based rules and category/role based rules. Alternatively, the prioritizing can include grouping the session requests into priority groups according to those queue rules.

Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspects of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a human-to-human collaborative session management system configured for session request queue management;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a process for rules based session request queueing in the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for rules based session request queueing in the system of FIG. 1; and,

FIG. 4 is a pictorial illustration of session request queue configured for session request dequeue management.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for session request queue management in a human-to-human collaborative system. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a queue can be maintained for incoming session requests for establishing human-to-human collaborative sessions, such as chat and instant messaging sessions as between a requestor and an invitee. The requests, when accepted can result in the establishment of a human-to-human collaborative session with the requestor. However, prior to acceptance (or denial or deferral), the requests can be stored in a queue--particularly where the invitee is not available to establish a human-to-human collaborative session. In this way, when available, the invitee can view the pending requests for a human-to-human collaborative session and the invitee can selectively accept, deny or defer each on an individual or group basis.

To facilitate the processing of the pending requests in the queue, the queued requests can be ordered and optionally grouped within the queue. Specifically, a queue management process can apply one or more ordering and grouping rules to the individual requests in the queue to establish a preferred ordering. The queue ordering can be directly applied within a user interface presenting to the invitee the queue of pending requests for human-to-human collaborative sessions. Consequently, those requests which are considered to be of the highest priority can be viewed more readily by the invitee due to the ordering.

When the invitee chooses to view and act upon the different session requests within the queue, a dequeue management process can provide a grouping capability for selecting multiple session requests similarly in choosing whether to accept, defer or deny the session requests. Other options include docketing a reminder to handle processing of a designated session request at a later time. Finally, two or more of the session requests in the queue not only can be selected for acceptance in establishing a human-to-human collaborative session with the requestors, but the selected session requests can be grouped together into a single human-to-human collaborative session involving all of the requestors for the selected session requests in a single, multi-party human-to-human collaborative session.

In more particular illustration, FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a human-to-human collaborative session management system configured for session request queue management. The system can include a multiplicity of collaborative clients 110, 120 communicatively coupled to one another of a data communications network 130. Each of the collaborative clients 110, 120 can be configured both to request and receive session requests 160 to establish human-to-human collaborative sessions, though for ease of illustration, a single invitee client 110 is shown as compared to multiple human-to-human collaborative session initiators 120.

Each of the initiators 120 can include a messenger 170. Likewise, the invitee 110 can include a messenger 150. The messengers 150, 170 can be programmed to enable the establishment and maintenance of a human-to-human collaborative session with one another. In one embodiment, a collaboration server 140 can be provided to facilitate the establishment and maintenance of human-to-human collaborative sessions between the messengers 150, 170. In this regard, each of the messengers 150, 170 can be configured both to initiate and to accept session requests 160 to establish a human-to-human collaborative session.

Notably, queue management logic 100 can be provided for use by the messenger 150. The queue management logic 100 can be enabled to manage the content in a queue 180 of session requests 160. Specifically, the queue management logic 100 can be enabled to order the session requests 160 in the queue 180 according to one or more queue rules 190. The queue management logic 100 further can be enabled to provide a display of the queued session requests 160 in accordance with the rules-based ordering defined by the queue rules 190. Finally, the queue management logic 100 yet further can be enabled to moderate the dequeuing of the session requests 160 from the queue.

In further illustration, FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a process for rules based session request queuing in the system of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, a multiplicity of session requests 210 can be received at different times, each of the session requests 210 requesting the establishment of a human-to-human collaborative session with the invitee. A rules based queuing process 220 can apply queue rules 230 to the incoming session requests 210 to determine a proper ordering and optionally, a proper grouping, of the session requests 210 in the queue 240.

The queue rules 230 can vary and six exemplary rules are shown. In a first rule, the session requests 210 are ordered according to the time when the session requests are received. In a second rule, the session requests 210 are ordered according to the presence of the requestors in a buddy list. Those session requests 210 originating from an requestor on a buddy list are deemed to be of a higher priority than those session requests 210 originating from a requestor not included in a buddy list. In a third rule, the session requests 210 can be ordered according to a dynamic buddy list of those contacts having short term relevance such as those whom have recently been party to a human-to-human collaborative session, those calendared for an appointment or task, or those with whom an e-mail message has been exchanged.

A fourth rule can include an ordering of the session requests 210 based upon a relationship hierarchy. A relationship hierarchy can include, but is not limited to, the relationship among requestors in an organizational chart, an organization directory or in a computing rights hierarchy. A fifth rule can include an ordering of the session requests 210 based upon a dynamic interest profile. A dynamic interest profile can include profile data which can be matched to the content of a session request 210 to establish a priority. The profile data can be collected from meta-data for documents associated with the invitee, for example. Finally, a sixth rule can include an ordering of the session requests 210 based upon a category or role assigned to the requestors and prioritized with respect to one another.

The session requests 210 can be ordered sequentially, or the session requests 210 can be grouped according to a priority such as “low”, “medium” and “high”. Alternatively, the session requests 210 can be ordered sequentially, and subsequently partitioned into different groups to establish a relative priority scheme. As yet another alternative, multiple ones of the queue rules 230 can be applied to the session requests 210 to form a composite rule. In the latter circumstance, the individual ones of the queue rules 230 can be weighted to form a weighted absolute position in the queue 240.

In further illustration, FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for rules based session request queuing in the system of FIG. 1. Beginning in block 310, a session request can be received by an invitee. In block 320, the identity of the requestor can be obtained and one or more of the queuing rules can be applied to the session request. In block 330, the application of the queuing rules can produce either a position in the queue of session requests, or a priority. Optionally, the application of the queuing rules can produce a position in the queue which subsequently can be considered in grouping all of the session requests in the queue into relative priorities.

Once session requests have populated the queue, the invitee can selectively address the session requests in the queue. Options include the acceptance of a session request so as to establish a human-to-human collaborative session with the requestor, the deferral of the session request to a later time, or the declination of the session request. In an embodiment of the present invention, groups of the session requests in the queue can be selected for action as a singular set. In this regard, a group of session requests can be selected for acceptance, deferral or declination.

In more particular illustration, FIG. 4 is a pictorial illustration of session request queue configured for session request dequeue management. As shown in FIG. 4, the session requests in the queue 400 can be ordered according to a priority which can range from low to high. Groups of the session requests can be marked for acceptance such as the exemplary case of QUEUE A shown in FIG. 4, while groups of the session requests can be marked for deferral such as the exemplary case of QUEUE B. Finally, groups of the session requests can be marked for declination such as the exemplary case of QUEUE C in FIG. 4.

Optionally, referring to QUEUE A in FIG. 4, in respect to the acceptance of a session requests, two or more session requests can be selected for acceptance such that a single, multi-party human-to-human collaborative session can be established for the different requestors associated with different ones of the session requests in the selected grouping. In any case, as the session requests are acted upon, the session requests can be removed from the queue 400, e.g. dequeued. For those session requests which have been deferred, an alarm or reminder can be docketed for subsequent treatment by the invitee and the deferred session requests can remain in the queue 400 until that time.

Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system.

For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk—read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk—read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters. 

We claim:
 1. A human-to-human collaborative data processing system comprising: a host computing platform comprising one or more computers, each with memory and at least one processor; a messenger executing in the memory of the host computing platform, the messenger configured for coupling to a plurality of other messengers; a queue of incoming session requests to establish respective human-to-human collaborative sessions with requestors associated with said other messengers; and, queue management logic executing in the memory of the host computing platform enabled to prioritize the incoming session requests in the queue of incoming session requests according to queue rules for prioritizing the incoming session requests by applying one or more queue rules to the incoming session requests, weighting said applied queue rules and, computing a priority for each of the incoming session requests based upon an outcome of said weighted, applied queue rules, to present the prioritized incoming session requests configured for selection in a graphical user interface of the computer before acting upon the selected one of said prioritized incoming session requests to establish human-to-human collaborative sessions, a requestor enabled to select one of said prioritized incoming session requests from the graphical user interface of the computer, to select multiple ones of said prioritized incoming session requests in the graphical user interface, and to assign a dequeuing action for said selected multiple ones of said prioritized incoming session requests.
 2. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, wherein said messenger is an instant messenger and wherein said other messengers are other instant messengers.
 3. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, further comprising a messaging server configured for communicative coupling to said messenger and to said other messengers to facilitate human-to-human collaborative sessions between said messenger and said other messengers.
 4. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, wherein said queue rules comprise time based rules.
 5. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, wherein said queue rules comprise buddy list based rules.
 6. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, wherein said queue rules comprise relative hierarchy based rules.
 7. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, wherein said queue rules comprise dynamic interest profile based rules.
 8. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, wherein said queue rules comprise category/role based rules.
 9. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 1, wherein said dequeuing comprises one of an acceptance of a session request to establish a human-to-human collaborative session with a requestor, a declination of a session request to establish a human-to-human collaborative session with a requestor, and a deferral of a session request to establish a human-to-human collaborative session with a requestor.
 10. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 9, wherein said dequeuing further comprises an establishment of a multi-party human-to-human collaborative session for requestors associated with multiple selected ones of said session requests.
 11. The human-to-human data processing system of claim 9, wherein said dequeuing further comprises a docketing of an alarm for reconsidering a deferred one of said session requests. 